Chatham University Special Collections Preservation Assessment

FAIN: PG-233645-16

Chatham University (Pittsburgh, PA 15229-1232)
Molly Tighe (Project Director: May 2015 to September 2017)

A preservation assessment of the university’s archives and special collections, comprising over 740 linear feet of records, photographs, student and administrative publications, audiovisual recordings, architectural drawings, and artifacts.  The materials date to the founding of Chatham University in 1869, documenting the history of one of the nation’s first women’s colleges to grant baccalaureate degrees.  Highlights of the collection include papers of author and environmentalist Rachel Carson, a 1929 graduate of the university; books and illustrations on Mesoamerican anthropology and archaeology; and biographies, oral histories, artwork, and early maps depicting the history and culture of Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania more generally.

A Preservation Assistance Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities will support a preservation needs assessment of the Jennie King Mellon Library Archives and Special Collections at Chatham University. Chatham was founded in 1869 as Pennsylvania Female College and our Archives and Special Collections have been used extensively to enhance education, research, and learning within the organization and by the broader public and scholarly communities. Highlights include the Rachel Carson Collection, which documents the Chatham alumna's student experience and ongoing connection to the university, and the Snowdon Mesoamerican Collection,which contains rare lithographs and fine photography. These, as well as other materials in Special Collections, will be the focus of a project to develop a targeted preservation initiative to ensure long-term access to these unique learning resources.